July 23, 2004

By: Ryan Alton
Website: http://www.1st-in-toys.com

LeapFrog Learning Institute Offers Parents Tips to Turn Summer Travel Time Into Learning Time

Whether it's off to grandma's house, the beach, a theme park or even another country, summer is the traditional season for family vacations -- and that means many long hours in planes, trains and automobiles. According to the Domestic Travel Report, 2003, some 134.9 million trips with children under 18 were made in the U.S. last year. That translates to a tremendous amount of potentially idle travel time for kids and their families.

The good news for parents, say experts from the LeapFrog Learning Institute, is that it is surprisingly easy to transform idle hours of travel time into quality learning time with a little planning.

Suzanne Barchers, LeapFrog Learning Institute's Curriculum Development Fellow and LeapFrog Enterprise's Editor-in-Chief, explains, Summer travel provides a great opportunity for parents to really encourage their children to learn, create and explore. Resist the temptation of resorting to DVDs or mindless video games to help pass the hours and instead use the time to reinforce or increase reading and math skills in an engaging way.

LeapFrog Learning Institute expert Barchers recommends five easy tips for parents to sneak learning into summer travel this year.

* Become a Storyteller. Start a story while traveling and then have your children take turns finishing it. Expand the activity by having the kids write and illustrate the stories.

* Bring Books to Life. Plan and create an activity for your child's favorite book. For activities focused on learning and exploring, the LeapFrog Learning Institute recommends the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio's Read It! Play It!, a new book that offers parents a suggested reading list of 50 books for kids 3-8, as well as ways to help kids keep their language, math, science and writing skills sharp while on summer vacation.

* Play Mental Math Games. Whether it's counting blue cars with your four year old or having your twelve year old create a budget for a day at the amusement park, look for age-appropriate opportunities to stimulate your child's mathematical mind.

* Create a Journey Scrapbook of Your Vacation. Encourage writing and creativity by having your child collect postcards and brochures, take photos and keep a journal of your day-to-day adventures.

* Have Learning Alternatives on Hand. Interactive learning products are a wonderful way to keep your child's mind engaged and active during the summer. Easy to pack, hand-held devices, such as LeapFrog's Leapster(TM) Multimedia Learning system or Turbo Twist(R) Math and Spelling, provide great learning activities for kids and are kid-tested to be fun for hours.

The LeapFrog Learning Institute views learning as a critical partnership between schools, parents and children. Research shows that parents who take an active role in inspiring learning for their children throughout the year will raise kids who are better students and are more engaged in educational pursuits. A goal of the LeapFrog Learning Institute is to aid today's busy parents with useful information on curriculum and technology that will help them to effectively challenge and motivate their children's learning habits.

About The Author:

Ryan Alton is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-toys.com.  Find fun kids educational toys and childrens wooden toys you enjoyed as a child.